Hurricane Hanna Lashes Texas Gulf Coast; Flooding Expected

CORPUS CHRISTI, TX — Hurricane Hanna pummeled the Texas Gulf Coast on Saturday, making landfall twice as a Category 1 storm while lashing the state's shoreline with heavy rains, intense winds and damaging storm surge.

The first hurricane of the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season made landfall both times in a little more than an hour. The first landfall happened around 5 p.m. about 15 miles north of Port Mansfield, about 130 miles south of Corpus Christi. The second landfall took place nearby in eastern Kenedy County.

Hanna came ashore with maximum sustained winds of 90 mph. As of Saturday night, those winds had weakened to 75 mph.

The storm was set to mostly skirt the Houston region, though weather officials said some of its outer bands would make for a wet and gusty weekend.

Related story: Texas Governor Deploys Resources As Hurricane Hanna Lands

Hanna came nearly three years after Hurricane Harvey made landfall northeast of Corpus Christi. Hanna was not expected to be as destructive as Harvey, which killed 68 people and caused an estimated $125 billion in damage in Texas.

Chris Birchfield, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Brownsville, said residents should still remain alert. While Hanna's winds were expected to weaken throughout Saturday night, the storm’s real threat remained heavy rainfall, he told The Associated Press.

Forecasters said Hanna could bring 6 to 12 inches of rain through Sunday night — with isolated totals of 18 inches — in addition to coastal swells that could cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions.

Some areas in South Texas had reported receiving up to 9 inches of rain, including Cameron County, which borders Mexico and where Brownsville is located. Rainfall totals were expected to rise throughout the evening and into Sunday.

Tornadoes were also possible overnight Saturday for parts of the lower to middle Texas coastal plain, forecasters said

More than 43,700 people throughout South Texas, including Corpus Christi, Harlingen and Brownsville, were without power Saturday evening, according to AEP Texas.

As of Saturday night, several shelters were open in Kleberg, Cameron and Nueces counties. The National Weather Service in Brownsville was also retweeting multiple lists of open shelters.

At a news conference on Saturday, Gov. Greg Abbott issued a disaster declaration for 32 Texas counties. He also intends to seek federal assistance for recovery efforts, the Chronicle reported.

Abbott said the dangerous storm would only be exacerbated by the ongoing coronavirus outbreak.

Nueces County, home to Corpus Christi, is considered a coronavirus hotspot in Texas, reporting well over 2,000 cases during each of the first two weeks of July, according to the Texas Tribune. At least 2 percent of the population was infected, or one in every 50 people.

“Any hurricane is an enormous challenge,” Abbott told reporters at the news conference. “This challenge is complicated and made even more severe, seeing that it is sweeping through an area that is the most challenged area in the state for COVID-19.”

Abbott dispatched emergency resources to the Coastal Bend region and to the Rio Grande Valley earlier in the day Saturday, where he was simultaneously sending more than 1,000 medical personnel to help fight the ongoing coronavirus outbreak.

A tropical storm warning remains in effect northward to High Island and southward to Barra el Mezquital, Mexico.

As of 4:30 p.m. Saturday, a hurricane warning north of Port Aransas was replaced by a tropical storm warning. The hurricane warning was issued earlier in the day from Mesquite Bay southward to Port Mansfield.

Both are in effect through Sunday night.

A hurricane warning means winds of 74 mph or greater are expected, while cities under a tropical storm warning should expect winds of at least 40 mph over the next 36 hours.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.